Cystic Hypersecretory Carcinoma of the Breast: Sonographic Features with a Histological Correlation

To evaluate imaging findings of cystic hypersecretory carcinoma (CHC) of the breast, with an emphasis of the sonographic (US) features, and to correlate the US findings with the histology. During the last 13 years, six women with a mean age of 43 years were histologically confirmed with CHC of the breast. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records, US images, and correlated them with histological findings. US showed a large complex cystic mass lined by a thin wall (n = 2), multiple small cysts in focally heterogeneous background parenchyma without predominant mass (n = 3), and an irregular mass with an ill-defined margin and ductectasia (n = 1). The pathology revealed that the thin walls of the cysts were all cystic hypersecretory intraductal carcinomas, while the solid portions of the lesions varied from benign intraductal papillomas to minimal infiltrating ductal carcinoma in the background of the cystic hypersecretory intraductal carcinomas. The characteristic US findings of cystic hypersecretory carcinoma are either a large complex cystic and solid mass or multiple small cysts in the background of a focally heterogeneous parenchyma